Diana Palermo

My work is a constant effort to generate images of the unrenderable. I weigh this contradiction through experimental photographic conjuring. It all began as a reclamation, giving myself permission to have a spiritual practice as a queer person shut out of organized religion. Seemingly futile acts like attempting to divine the future are lovingly picked at with curiosity and holistic embrace. My work is intentional in its misuse of process often relying on camera-less and alchemical generation. I remain bemused by my role as a person asserting power over materials. I balance the extremes by either setting up conditions for a photographic print and walking away for 3 months—surrendering control to light, time, and chemical—or wielding a camera and/or xacto knife to make intentioned gestures with my eye and/or hand. The final images act as byproducts and specimens of an intervention. I feel a responsibility to rebuild, heal, organize, and repair; knowing that these images may need to be undone and reimaged at any moment. In the end, I ask: Does my work embody the magic it professes?

Diana Palermo lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
To view more work, please visit www.dianapalermo.com or www.instagram.com/line_dot_square